LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday that he wanted to get the travel industry moving again with a simple user-friendly system to allow for trips abroad without importing new variants of the coronavirus.
“We need to get people, get the travel industry moving again,” Johnson told reporters. “We want an approach that is as simple as we can possibly make it.”
Britain has double vaccinated a higher proportion of its population against COVID-19 than most other countries, but the government has prevented travel to many destinations by imposing rules that the travel industry says are hobbling the economy.
Johnson’s travel regulations have angered some of Britain’s European allies, frustrated millions of sun-seeking Britons and brought warnings from airports, airlines and tour companies.
In a letter to Johnson that was leaked to media, finance minister Rishi Sunak called for an urgent easing of travel restrictions.
The Times newspaper reported that Britain planned to warn holidaymakers against visiting popular tourist destinations such as Spain because of concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Such a step could trigger an exodus of about a million British tourists already abroad, cause further damage to the travel sector and deal a new blow to southern Europe’s summer tourist season.
A spokesperson for Britain’s transport ministry declined to comment on The Times report, published on the day when rules were eased for double-vaccinated travelers from the United States and most of Europe.
Under rules to be reviewed on Thursday, double-vaccinated travelers can return without quarantining from countries rated “amber” on a “traffic-light” list assessing the COVID-19 risk.
Those returning from red-list countries — the most severe risk — must pay 1,750 pounds ($2,436) to spend 10 days in a hotel.
An amber watchlist was due to be signed off on Thursday but a split in the government could delay a decision, The Times said.
Citing the threat posed by the Beta coronavirus variant, England has maintained quarantine rules for double-vaccinated travelers from France, while scrapping the requirement for travelers from other medium-risk “amber” countries.
France has complained, saying the bulk of its Beta variant cases come from the island of La Reunion in the Indian Ocean.
We need to get the travel industry moving again, UK PM Johnson says
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We need to get the travel industry moving again, UK PM Johnson says
- "We need to get people, get the travel industry moving again," Johnson told reporters
- Johnson's travel regulations have angered some of Britain's European allies, frustrated millions of sun-seeking Britons
US Treasury chief says retaliatory EU tariffs over Greenland ‘unwise’
- He said Trump wanted control of the autonomous Danish territory because he considers it a “strategic asset” and “we are not going to outsource our hemispheric security to anyone else.”
Davos: US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned European nations on Monday against retaliatory tariffs over President Donald Trump’s threatened levies to obtain control of Greenland.
“I think it would be very unwise,” Bessent told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.
He said Trump wanted control of the autonomous Danish territory because he considers it a “strategic asset” and “we are not going to outsource our hemispheric security to anyone else.”
Asked about Trump’s message to Norway’s prime minister, in which he appeared to link his Greenland push to not winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Bessent said: “I don’t know anything about the president’s letter to Norway.”
He added, however, that “I think it’s a complete canard that the president will be doing this because of the Nobel Prize.”
Trump said at the weekend that, from February 1, Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden would be subject to a 10-percent tariff on all goods sent to the United States until Denmark agrees to cede Greenland.
The announcement has drawn angry charges of “blackmail” from the US allies, and Germany’s vice chancellor Lars Klingbeil said Monday that Europe was preparing countermeasures.
Asked later Monday on the chances for a deal that would not involve acquiring Greenland, Bessent said “I would just take President Trump at his word for now.”
“How did the US get the Panama Canal? We bought it from the French,” he told a small group of journalists including AFP.
“How did the US get the US Virgin Islands? We bought it from the Danes.”
Bessent reiterated in particular the island’s strategic importance as a source of rare earth minerals that are critical for a range of cutting-edge technologies.
Referring to Denmark, he said: “What if one day they were worried about antagonizing the Chinese? They’ve already allowed Chinese mining in Greenland, right?“
